The influence of pump phase error on phase-sensitive optical amplifier (PSA) repeaters and the waveform degradation due to chromatic dispersion and fiber nonlinearities in the optical multi-relay transmission of quadrature phase-shift keying phase-conjugated twin waves are considered theoretically. First, the influence of noise from the pump phase error, optical local oscillator, receiver, and the amplified spontaneous-emission (ASE) in PSA repeaters is investigated with the assumption that transmission fibers are linear lossy channels. The bit-error rate (BER) is estimated as a function of the signal-to-noise ratio, and the relationship between the number of transmission relays and the fiber launch power is clarified. Waveform degradation due to chromatic dispersion and the optical fiber nonlinearities in transmission fibers are investigated with the noiseless condition, and the maximum repeatable number as a function of the fiber launch power is calculated. Finally, we show the relationship among the maximum repeatable number, standard deviation of pump phase error in PSA repeaters, and the fiber launch power to clarify the optimum transmission condition with consideration of the noise and the waveform degradation.

We discuss ISDB (Integrated Services Digital Broadcasting) which has a transport structure to meet the technical requirements such as the flexibility and the extensibility of broadcasting in the future. The basic configuration of the ISDB transmission signal for distribution into various transmission channels is shown. Hybrid multiplexing, which uses common fixed-length packets and structured transmission units called "slots," is introduced to construct a transmission signal for low-cost signal processing in ISDB receivers. We show that a fixed packet length of 40-240 bytes results in high transmission efficiency in a diverse range of service arrangements. Furthermore, we use transmission control methods, which show the relationship between programs and packet IDs, to select the desired program with certainty and ease.